Moving around or exiting the trap?

Abstract

This paper examines the changes within the political regime and the state two years after the revolutionary changes of government. There are three questions in focus: whether the regime has changed, whether there has been a renewal of elites and what are the prospects of slipping out of the institutional trap, where Ukraine had fallen in the mid 90's. The analysis shows that the institutional core of the regime has hardly changed, meaning that the regime remains hybrid. Despite greater than in 2004 quantitative renewal of elites, qualitative change has not occurred again. Preserving informal institutional core of the regime and the lack of a genuine elite renewal are the two critical factors that impede the Ukraine’s movement towards sustainable development. One strategy to help Ukraine to start moving forward would be a closer institutional "binding" of Ukraine to the Western institutions and structures.